Flight turbulence: the stormy professional trajectory of trainee early years’ teachers in England

Abstract

This paper documents trainees' 'flight turbulence' as they negotiate the complexities that lie between 'the self' and the securing of Early Years Teaching Status (EYTS) in England. Early Years Teachers, besides teaching, are expected to lead improvements to the quality of provision. However, drawing on interview data, an impasse is discerned where ideas meet instrumental policy in practice. Trainees are often unable to reshape the meeting of theory, policy and practice and struggle in finding teaching approaches which they are comfortable with ethically. Drawing on Holland et al's concept of 'figured worlds', it is suggested that the development of theory-informed practice should not be seen as a solitary task for the student but as a dialogic though difficult conversation involving the student, university staff and placement practitioners. Dialogism is seen as requiring persistence but as offering opportunities for beginning early years' teachers, with support from teacher educators and experienced practitioners, to negotiate the challenging spaces between policy, theory and beliefs as they seek to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct ethical professional identities for themselves.

‘Certified to make a difference’: the motivation and perceptions of newly qualified early years teachers in England

“…As Barron (2016) points out, the professional identity of this new group of early years teachers is still under construction, and our participants are taking up their careers in a sector of varied provision, much of it privately owned, where market forces cannot be disregarded.…”

“…This confusion over status indicates the long-standing desire amongst early years practitioners for parity with their colleagues in primary and secondary schools. Barron (2016) points out that one possible reason for EYPs not being labelled as teachers, was a concession to market forces within the early years sector, where many settings are private businesses that would baulk at meeting the costs of teachers' pay and conditions. By not giving EYTS parity with QTS, the government has perhaps been making a similar concession.…”

The Messiness of Ethics in Education

“…Whatever ontological positionality practitioners have regarding ethics, the way they reconcile their own ethical identity, personally and professionally, will inform, or provide points of rhizomatic intensity that will impact on the way that they view and engage with ethics. However, there are tensions within this process as identified by Taggart (2011), Barron (2016), Ribers (2018) and Malone (2020), when a practitioner's ethical positionality and compliance with hegemonic legislative codes and regulations do not align. The dilemma, as Ribers (2018 p.897) observes, is how EY practitioners reconcile and develop an ethical consciousness within EYE in relation to the subjective relational context within which they work.…”

“…Despite there being an implicit understanding that educators are seen as innately moral and ethical ( and certainly this would be the espoused belief of many educators), Aubrey et al (2000), Ribers (2018) and Malone (2020) highlight that ethics and ethical conduct are not prioritised within teacher training and practice preparation. Although these articles consider the dilemma from the cultural perspective of Denmark and the US, the situation is no different within the UK, as Taggart (2011) and Barron (2016) discuss. In fact the early years teaching standards produced by the NCTL (2013) do not mention ethics, ethicality or moral capabilities at all.…”

Leadership in early childhood education: The case for pedagogical praxis

“…The EYFS is central to the way in which such provision is run and provides the key focus of attention for each setting, which is required to implement a mandatory curriculum and standards of care. At the government level, there is an intent ‘to move decisively away from the idea that teaching young children is somehow less important or inferior to teaching school age children’ (National College for Teaching and Leadership, 2013: 6), but nevertheless there is still a dichotomy in the status, pay and qualifications of staff in the private and maintained sectors that implement the EYFS (Barron, 2016: 327). Longitudinal studies (e.g.…”